Doug Marrone Provides Updates on Ryquell Armstead and Devonta Freeman: 'He'll Be Out For A While'

Jacksonville Jaguars’ second-year running back Ryquell Armstead will be out “for a while” according to head coach Doug Marrone.

Armstead is on the Jaguars’ “Reserve/COVID-19” list for the second time since the start of August after being placed on the list last week.

Now with the season set to kick-off in less than a week (the Jags open with the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday) Marrone revealed to reporters during a press conference on Monday that he doesn’t know when Armstead will actually be able to return.

“I think it's gonna be a while, I can't put a real timetable on it but, you know, it's gonna be -- he'll be out for a while.”

Since he is on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, Armstead does not count against the active 53-man roster.

Armstead was first placed on the newly created Reserve/COVID-19 list on Aug. 2; he remained there until Aug. 20 when he was activated off and able to return to practice. On Aug. 29, the club announced Armstead would be held out of the team's final scrimmage of training camp. On August 31, that was upgraded to missing practice due to an illness. At the time, the illness was specified as not COVID related. Then on Sept. 4, Armstead was placed back on the Reserve/COVID-19 list.

Armstead was drafted by the Jaguars in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft. As a rookie he rushed for 108 yards on 35 carries, while also hauling in two touchdowns and 144 yards on 14 receptions. His presence would seem to be crucial this fall, given the recent waiving of starter Leonard Fournette.

As the active roster currently stands, the running back unit is made up of veteran Chris Thompson, second-year undrafted free agent Devine Ozigbo and rookie UDFA James Robinson.

The rookie Robinson could potentially see an uptick in snaps without Fournette and now without Armstead. Both Marrone and General Manager Dave Caldwell praised the Illinois State product and Thompson told reporters last week that Robinson had the best vision of the entire unit.

“James [Robinson] has really just been a pleasant surprise. We liked him at the East-West Game, and we were fortunate to kind of luck into him at the end of the draft,” said Caldwell on Saturday after the roster was set.

Added Marrone on Monday, "James Robinson, you know guy that not many people know has really had a good camp.

“The three guys we have are the three, the three top guys in camp and I'm excited to get these guys out there and watch them go, I mean Chris [Thompson] is healthy for the first time, [Devine] Ozigbo has really earned a spot, I mean from what he's done.”

Marrone and Caldwell have talked about possibly needing more experience in the unit though, with Armstead’s status so uncertain. Over the weekend, the club brought in free agent running back Devonta Freeman on a visit.

Once the highest-paid back in the league, the Atlanta Falcons released Freeman in March. As explained by SI.com's Jenna West, Freeman passed on a one year, $4 million deal from the Seattle Seahawks, hoping for a bigger pay-day with a different team.

👀👀👀👀 https://t.co/SxpdX1SUpV
— Chris Thompson (@ChrisThompson_4) September 6, 2020

Marrone didn’t offer much insight into the meetings other than to say, “we brought Devonta in, we had good talks with him and we'll see where it goes.”

No matter where it goes, the Jacksonville Jaguars running back unit is preparing to be without Ryquell Armstead for the foreseeable future.